December 29, 2010

Ukraine extends grain export quotas to Q1 next year

Ukraine has extended grain export quotas to include the first quarter of 2011 and increased the volume to 4.2 million tonnes from the initial 2.7 million, according to a government resolution published on Tuesday (Dec 28).

The resolution was adopted by the government on December 6 but has not been published or enforced yet.

Last week, Ukrainian Farm Minister, Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, said the government was reconsidering previous plans to extend grain export quotas to the second half of the 2010/11 season.

However, earlier this month, Prysyazhnyuk said the government had extended the quotas which were initially set to expire on December 31 till March 31, 2011.

Ukraine's economy ministry in December proposed that the government issue additional quotas for exports of 500,000 tonnes of wheat and one million tonnes of corn to end-March.

The initial grain export quotas allowed exports of 500,000 tonnes of wheat and two million tonnes of corn until the year-end.

Ukraine, which exports barley, wheat and corn, is likely to harvest about 40 million tonnes of grain in clean weight in 2010, down from 46 million in 2009 due to a severe drought.